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Launching a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party in light of its high-profile leaders visiting the RSS headquarters in Nagpur of late, Congress today said the saffron party was working as a "call centre" of RSS to hardsell "product" Narendra Modi ahead of 2014 elections.
"Over the last few weeks, senior BJP leaders have been visiting the RSS headquarters in Nagpur at regular intervals for a performance review. Following which these leaders are engaged in operation praise Modi.
"This confirms that RSS is the 'task master' of BJP's 'Modi Window 2014', " AICC media cell member and state Congress spokesman Anant Gadgil told reporters.
He was responding to a query on a string of BJP leaders, including L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Rajnath Singh, among others, visiting RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat last week.
Accusing BJP of raking up the Ram mandir issue to drive a communal wedge to score political mileage, Gadgil said that BJP was playing a double game by trying to project the Gujarat chief minister as "secular" leader.
"At the same time, BJP president Rajnath Singh plays down the mandir issue after adverse reactions pouring in. BJP is playing a double game," Gadgil said.
Gadgil said that in its desperate bid to come to power and following realisation that the brand BJP has taken a beating, BJP is now resorted to market the individual leader in Narendra Modi as its "product".
"BJP has failed to come to power in Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh and also got exposed in Gujarat encounter case. Realising that BJP as a brand has failed, the party is now started to market product Modi as an individual," Gadgil said.
"In Karnataka, their (BJP's) former chief minister and three former ministers were imprisoned. In Gujarat, their ministers are facing criminal charges. While in Madhya Pradesh, a senior minister had to quit following allegations of sexual misbehaviour. Now it has come to light that RSS books were purchased through government funds," Gadgil alleged.